Tangled Together
by Rapunzel4
Summary: Sora and Riku have gotten themselves in a bit of a predicament and they have to go to Kairi for help.


Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts, in all its various incarnations, belongs to Squaresoft and Disney, neither of which is me.

Warnings: Shounen ai, TWT, crackfic

Author's Notes: While playing the first Kingdom Hearts game, my friends and I happened to remark on how the characters' teeth are colored in such a way that it sometimes appears as if they're wearing braces. That one observation sparked this bit of insanity. Read at your own risk.

Tangled Together

Kairi had tried to keep a straight face, really she had. Her two best friends had come to her in trouble and seeking her help, and she knew that she should have been calm, understanding, and helpful. However, once she had actually seen the two of them in their predicament, the sight had proved too much for her. She just had to laugh.

"Kairi..." Sora said, the word almost unintelligible. He'd been trying to sound annoyed, but it came out somewhere between a desperate plea and a petulant pout.

Somehow, that only made her laugh more.

"Kairi..." Riku actually did manage to sound threatening, and he was even trying to glare at her. However, the effect of the look was lost, as he could barely see around Sora's face to get at her. And that just made her howl even harder.

"Let me guess," she said finally, fighting to get the last few chuckles under control. "You two were kissing, and..." she trailed off, dissolving into a fit of giggles again at the thought. "I didn't even know that was physically possible!" she laughed.

"Damn it, Kairi!" Riku snapped. "It's not that funny!"

Kairi could understand his irritation, but at the same time, she couldn't see how having your two best friends locked together at the mouth by tangled braces could be anything but funny. Well, funny for a bystander anyway.

"Will you just stop laughing and get the pliers already?" Riku demanded. He enunciated the words as clearly as he could, considering the way his mouth was tied up. Literally.

Kairi found that she was only able to fulfill half of his request. She dutifully left to fetch the pliers, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop laughing. The pliers proved a little difficult to locate, but after a bit of searching, she finally found them in the junk drawer. After fishing them out and making a slight detour to her room to grab one other required item, she returned to Sora and Riku.

They were in much the same state as when she'd left them. Sora was getting fidgety by this time, and Riku was doing his best to hold the boy still, lest his squirming cause them to rip apart too forcefully and take the rest of their orthodontic work and possibly a few teeth out.

Pausing to mentally roll up her sleeves, Kairi stepped in close to them and went to work.

"You know what the best part about being friends with you guys is?" she asked as she carefully picked apart the thin strands of metal. "I'm never bored. You always manage to get yourselves in interesting situations."

"I'm glad we amuse you," Riku said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Don't talk," Kairi scolded him. "I can't work if your mouth is moving."

Riku scowled, but deciding that silence was better than a pair of pliers through the lip, he shut up.

"I shudder to think about how much it's going to cost to get your braces fixed after this," Kairi said as she continued working. The pieces of metal were tangled worse than she had supposed. She imagined that Sora and Riku must have struggled some initially trying to get themselves free, and had instead only made the mess worse. "You're going to have a heck of a time explaining to the orthodontist how it happened too." That thought amused her.

"At least he won't have to actually see us like this," Riku muttered, forgetting her orders not to talk.

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that..." Kairi said slyly.

"You mean you can't get it loose?" Sora asked. At least, Kairi thought that was what he was asking; his speech had been somewhat more impaired by the predicament than Riku's.

"No," she said carefully surveying the job she'd done. She'd managed to untangle just about everything except for one last loop of wire still hooking them together. "I'm pretty sure I can get you two untangled. Your braces will be ruined, of course, but you already knew that. No, I was thinking more about this!"

So saying, she took a step back and produced the other item she had grabbed in her quest for the pliers. Her camera. Snapping off a quick picture of Riku and Sora, joined at the mouth and giving her twin looks of horror, she quickly stepped forward and, using the pliers, flicked apart the last loop of wire.

"There, all done," she said. "See you later." And with that, she took off running.

It must have taken a moment for their newfound freedom to sink in, because Riku and Sora did not immediately spring after her. However, after a moment, she heard two indignant shouts of "KAIRI!" from behind her. Giggling, she ran a little faster. If they caught her, they'd destroy her camera, and she couldn't have that. At least not before she'd had a chance to show the picture to Selphie.

"That was priceless," she laughed to herself as she fled. "Utterly priceless."

Owari


End file.
